Tyrosine inhibits creatine kinase activity in cerebral cortex of young rats

Tyrosine accumulates in inborn errors of tyrosine catabolism, especially in tyrosinemia type II, where tyrosine levels are highly elevated in tissues and physiological fluids of affected patients. Tyrosinemia type II is a disorder of autosomal recessive inheritance characterized by neurological symptoms similar to those observed in patients with creatine deficiency syndromes. Considering that the mechanisms of brain damage in these disorders are poorly known, in the present study our main objective was to investigate the in vivo and in vitro effects of different concentrations and preincubation times of tyrosine on cytosolic and mitochondrial creatine kinase activities of the cerebral cortex from 14-day-old Wistar rats. The cytosolic CK was reduced by 15% at 1 mM and 32% at 2 mM tyrosine. Similarly, the mitochondrial CK was inhibited by 15% at 1 mM and 22% at 2 mM tyrosine. We observed that the inhibition caused by tyrosine was concentration-dependent and was prevented by reduced glutathione. Results also indicated that mitochondrial, but not cytosolic creatine kinase activity was inhibited by tyrosine in a time-dependent way. Finally, a single injection of L-Tyrosine methyl ester administered i.p. decreased cytosolic (31%) and mitochondrial (18%) creatine kinase activities of brain cortex from rats. Considering that creatine kinase is an enzyme dependent of thiol residues for its function and tyrosine induces oxidative stress, the results suggest that the inhibition caused by tyrosine might occur by oxidation of essential sulfhydryl groups of the enzyme. In case this also occurs in patients with tyrosinemia, it is possible that creatine kinase inhibition may contribute to the neurological dysfunction characteristic of tyrosinemia.